Robyn

Re: Yet another 'how to build': Body-Swapper

I have it, and I'm not looking at it as I post this.

 

I'll ask the obvious: So you're a black box AI. You control robot bodies. You CAN buy all the bodies as vehicles. You can also buy mind control to represent your ability to flip in and out of systems.

 

I thought you were doing a 'soul jump', which I would've called a Transfer & Transform combo, or simply a Transform (you into me, mental only, shunts me into you, mental only, side effect: stuns you, I'm ready for it).

Interesting. This would simplify matters immensely for the "Avatar" character, if I could just work out how to have a power that *created* Foci.

Hmm . . . "new robot bodies" may be created by "time in shop"? New physical shells may be created by Concentration 1 Turn, or a Recoverable Focus that comes back Indirectly (only where perception extends)?

Interesting. I'll have to think more about this.

Re: How many points for the Earth? (and everything on it)

Taking the tongue out of the cheek for a moment of serious discussion:

 

It's a stupid question.

You said it, not I.

I'll just point innocently up to that spot in the first post where I identified this as a parody of the Superheroic option, and make the observation that the core rules don't seem to tell us where to stop figuring out point costs.

The main question was blatantly ludicrous, yes, if padded with just enough material to make it appear reasonable to attempt, but I hope that 5th Edition contains (or that 6th Edition will) some level of discouragement for new GM's who inwardly quail at the thought of having to calculate point values for everything. Perhaps an observation that, yes, you can put every last detail into the system, but it is recommended for the GM to avoid what won't be needed (soon). And, if not, hey - it's not like there are lots of us who read about Superheroic and wonder how far it goes.

The drugs part was serious, though. It lent the rest more credibility, too, don't you think?

Actual backstory

Come to think of it' date=' I don't remember much of the backstory. I'll have to go see if I had any notes on it.[/quote']

 

No notes, so I'm just going from memory, here:

 

The PC was once a very powerful wizard (note the high Intelligence) who, through a desire to be immortal or to bequeath a powerful reward to some warrior who had saved the magi's life, transferred a spirit from the body to a sword.

 

See, now wasn't that quick and merciful? I'll hope to gather more backstory hints from my GM. In the meantime, tell the player that he has amnesia as part of his mind's attempt to block out the crushing weight of the centuries spent alone (just don't tell him about the insanity part - heh, heh). This means you have both the leisure to make up his backstory at your inspiration, and the freedom to make it something really evil

 

By the way, the sword doesn't have a choice about making its "followers" immune to the Invulnerability effect; remember that it absorbs kinetic energy, so if it didn't make them able to transfer kinetic energy into it for motion, not "mystic life energy", its "wielders" would never be able to move the blade. Once made immune, they can never be changed back (the spell only works one way), so it works for past as well as current wielders.

 

If you have points left over (and it sounds like you would, with that point base), give the wizard the ability to cast spells; as a sword it can't move to gesture or speak to incant, but if it takes direct control of the wielder, it may be able to cast spells "through" them. Of course, some negotiation may be necessary to get the wielder to accept this, if the sword is taking the "pretend to just be a sentient blade made to serve its owner and with no powers to control you whatsoever" route, since the wielder would still have no memory of what had happened.

Re: How many points for the Earth? (and everything on it)

It's immaterial.

 

The earth has as many points as it needs.

So then, a being with reality-based powers can't simply extend their mind and will the Earth out of existence? I mean, how many points of Drain would such a villain need, here? Sure, we could give the Earth a zillion levels of Power Defense, but wouldn't it be more appropriate to simply let it resist naturally with its active points?

Re: A very strange build for critiquing.

I forgot the most severe Disadvantage! Cannot Gain Experience, 25 points. We actually ended up changing this later on, but the GM still thought it was worth immense points. The sword can never gain any further powers, skills, etcetera.

Come to think of it' date=' I don't remember much of the backstory. I'll have to go see if I had any notes on it.[/quote']

 

25 - Exp to Followers

20 - Aversion/Killing of telepaths

5 - Reluctance to Kill

25 - Drug Addiction/Compulsion

25 - Quadroplegic

20 - No senses without wielder

15 - Reservoir of insanity

15 - Cannot perceive insanity

 

Special Effect:

When without wielder, * stats are infused with sword

When with wielder, * stats are conferred as bonus to Focus

 

Special Effect:

Presence is not always on; drops to 0 when with wielder, to avoid coveting

 

Str 10*

Dex 20*

Con 10*

Body 10*?

Ego 20

Int 35

Pre 20

Com 20

 

Sword is 3d6 HKA,

[Tab] Obvious Accessible Focus (wielder).

 

Confers Skill to handle sword of Familiarity

 

Missile Deflection, with sword only (SE)

 

[Tab] +5 CV with Missile Deflection,

[Tab] Extended Time (full phase, not half),

[Tab] simultaneous -5 to DCV

 

Martial Block, with sword only (SE)

Disarm, with sword only (SE)

 

+3 levels of Mental OCV.

 

Continuous Cumulative Transform

[Tab] Always on (continuous/uncontrollable)

[Tab] No conscious awareness

[Tab] 1d6 minor transformation

[Tab] Based on mental OCV

[Tab] Only when mental contact is successfully made

[Tab] Damage Shield (automatic hit if telepathic attack continues)

 

Insubstantial, Shared Immunities (SE)

[Tab] Always On

[Tab] Current and past Followers are immune.

[Tab] No Visible Power Effect

[Tab] Attacks Only

 

 

Forgot to buy actual Mind Control attack; balance it out with Confer Physical Traits, skills, maneveurs, etcetera, automatic and uncontrollable?

 

Translation of all this:

 

Experience is gained by the wielder even when the sword completely takes over their mind and forces them to do things. This almost makes their relationship a symbiotic one.

 

The sword is terrified of those with mental powers, because of the threat they pose to it, but when confronted with them in combat will take any opportunity to end their life immediately. Yes, this does conflict with the light Reluctance to Kill (which is there partially to prevent the sword from simply killing all of the former wielders who came after it).

 

I don't remember what the Drug Addiction/Compulsion was, I'll have to think about it some more and ask my GM if he remembers anything.

 

The high (20) Presence is partially from being such a well-crafted blade, partially from being perfectly intact, and partially for all the gems and glittery ornamentation which have been added to it in the past by wielders who thought their sword should look much nicer (these can be destroyed, or removed, and sometimes the sword has found itself being wielded by a thief who wasn't even thinking of it as a useful weapon).

 

The three levels of Mental OCV (and note that this does not include DCV!) are there to basically assure the sword's chances of taking over any normal person. But trained martial artists have probably developed intense discipline, and are much stronger-willed than the average person!

 

The Transform is its insanity, and it needs to have a mental link either to its wielder to inflict some of its insanity upon that person; but any telepath even trying to scan its mind is going to be partially driven insane by the contact. I think in this final version, the sword could be psychically attacked at range, but with the risk of insanity it wouldn't be worth much; the psychic still couldn't gain anything from the sword unless physically present to take advantage of its powers, and the sword couldn't do anything itself to switch owners or even to move physically closer!

 

Last but not least, and arguably worst, is that anyone who has previously wielded the sword has the power to destroy it!!!

Calculating the point value for cocaine

I found my notes for this right next to my notes for the sword PC. Both sets of data were originally gained from a phone call to my GM.

Heightened Alertness

Physical Reflex Enhancement

Needs Less Sleep

General Euphoria, king of the world

Increased bodily sensitivity pain/pleasure, cocaine numb

dilated pupils

brain damage

look really tweaky, talk too fast, not stop talking

extreme overconfidence

jitteriness

loss of appetite

facial and bodily tics

jaw damage, ligaments

irritability

addictive

ages body, accelerating metabolism

low-down, increases with prolonged usage

tolerance, up quickly short-term, fades 72 hours

1/8 milligram, 3 hours, .5, six 1/2, 6 1, methamphetamine, slightly stronger variant

pretty potent

Sure, only a fraction of this has been converted into system mechanics. But it's a start.

Re: How many points for the Earth? (and everything on it)

Depends? Are we allowed to add megascale cheese to this sandwhich?

Sure, go crazy with Advantages. A hundred levels of Hardened, a thousand? You're the GM. You have infinite points.

Re: A very strange build for critiquing.

Total Cost 350

50pts Disads required

 

I've ignored a few official rules to make it work,

I worked out a character very much like this one, with my GM, a few years back. I'll ask him if he kept any notes on the character (I don't remember much, since I never ended up actually playing it), but for now all I can give you is a good backstory. Also, we built the sword as a 250-point PC (100 base, 150 disads), and to my knowledge didn't break any rules, so you may find the build more useful. [My GM also insisted on taking a 3d6 Killing Attack as the sword's damage, not just the 1d6+1 recommended elsewhere on this thread, so you may be able to reduce even that 250 points!]

Come to think of it, I don't remember much of the backstory. I'll have to go see if I had any notes on it. I can tell you something about the weaknesses, though:

Enhancements to user's body were not optional - they took place as soon as a new wielder took up the blade. Extreme vulnerability to psychic attack, but only at touch range (blade could be detected from farther away, though), meaning that the sword was a weak psychic who only had a good chance of taking over weak wielders (not an assured success), a decent chance at experienced wielders, and a poor chance at the powerful. Because of the powers it gave, it was Hunted by psychics (the weak and the powerful alike), who wanted to use it for their own purposes. The sword itself was invulnerable to normal attacks (*winks at Lucius*), because it absorbed all kinetic energy to feed its own existence and special powers. Oh wait, that was an advantage, let me switch back. The spirit inside the sword had been driven mad by its long periods of not being wielded (no ranged telepathic attacks, no ability to sleep, no senses, all of which effectively left it in a sensory deprivation tank for centuries until it was unearthed), and unconsciously attempts to regain its sanity by shunting some of that off into the wielder through their telepathic link. Of course, since it has literally centuries of pent-up insanity to work through, I didn't bother to express this through a point pool, or suggest that the disadvantage could be bought off; it was just a permanent disadvantage. I took that as a Power to continually Transform the wielder, 1d6 per week, into Insanity (randomly selected Psychological Disadvantages), and noted that the sword would not be aware of it happening. As the wielder would gradually grow more insane, the sword would simply think that it was still adjusting to humanity and hadn't perceived or understood the wielder's already existing insanity before. The sword also had the option of not trying to take over the wielder's mind, and simply talking them into assistance, but only had one chance (ever) to take over their mind, and this was at the time that person first touched the sword. When taken over, the person would have no memory of their deeds, but the sword could not access the memories of its wielder, so it often relinquished control immediately after seizing it, leaving the wielder with a sensation of having blacked out, and hoping to work in concert with that person with the ability to completely take over in reserve. Unfortunately, anyone who had touched it, even for a moment, and were "taken over" (succumbed to the sword's mental attack) would have that mental link established to them, and could forever after "feel" the location of the sword in relation to their own. This meant that the sword was also Hunted by an ever-growing succession of former wielders who felt that they were each its sole rightful wielder, and destined to wield it again.

I hope these ideas last you until I can retrieve the backstory and/or more detailed design notes!

In a Superheroic campaign, everything must be bought and paid for. Okay.

I figure we may as well start with the planet. After all, many supervillains have plotted to destroy the world, and if they can't do it with a single punch of their mighty fists, we need to give the Earth some resistant PD or something. Lots of it.

[Even then, most supervillains would probably just fail miserably; see Sam Hughes' guide for more details.]

But even then, we still need to account for everything on the planet. Sure, the Earth provides us with a massive area-of-effect Life Support atmosphere, and this can probably be considered part of it since the Earth's gravitional field is keeping the air close by, but what about the trees? The humans? Their creations?

I figure cocaine would be a simple, manageable, starting point. The process can also be used as a template for creating *other* drugs (and I don't just mean existing ones - how many times have you wished that your supervillain could create a lethal airborne toxin to threaten the people of New York with?).

It's a Focus with charges, recoverable by manufacturing more. It makes people happy and causes mental damage, which could be done by Linking two Mental attacks (NND/Chemical?), one to Mind Control them into zoning out and believing themselves to be perfectly content (good thing ensouled Angel never took drugs), the other to permanently Drain their Intelligence and Transform them to have Psychological Disadvantages such as Addiction (a Dependency?) to the substance. It can be found across the entire planet (widely available), and has a Variable form (paste, powder, etcetera), unless the different forms should be bought separately. The powder form, due to its peculiar nature, is invulnerable to most physical attacks; you punch or slash a bag of powder, and you usually end up with a light coating of dust on your hands or the blade, but the powder itself, though scattered, is generally intact.

Let's take some of the fauna next. Humans: what's their base package? I haven't been able to find the rules for drowning, but I'm sure it could be translated into a "Dependency on Air: Very Common".

And let's not forget the NPC's who help out our heroes. Sure, this can all be done through roleplaying, but if you get firemen to aim their hoses at some fire-based villain who takes extra damage from water-based attacks, where are the points from this attack coming from? Sure, a Variable Power Pool for everyone in the city, Limited by "only as talked into it" would work, but why make things so expensive? More efficient, I think, to make conversation a Mental/Presence attack (with Special Effect "Roleplaying") that can persuade the NPC's within range to help out.

This could be fun. Sure, the HERO system (probably) wasn't intended to provide the mechanics for everything in the campaign, but if that was the case, they shouldn't have provided a "Superheroic" option!

I wonder how many people will read far enough to recognize this as a parody (not that I don't intend to seriously calculate the point costs for all drugs! . . . someday). I would have identified myself as insane within the first line.

Re: Queer heroes

I saw the thread title and just knew that, if it was anything but a "Which canon characters do you think were queer?" thread, I would have to reply with;

A bisexual PC is in love with a hermaphromorphic PC. The former could be any PC (look for player compatibility, too, though), the latter could be a shapechanger of some kind with poor control: they can't affect their own gender, which gradually swings between utterly male and utterly female every 24 hours, being asexual (no gender characteristics, like a robot) every dusk and dawn.

I originally had the cycle as one month, but for the genre you'd probably want a shorter timeframe. I'm also unsure how well the roleplaying appeal of such a relationship would translate to the often action-based Champions genre.

Re: Need a name for a new Talent

+X DCV' date=' only to offset the penalty for using a bow (-1)[/quote']

 

Does +X mean we can determine the exact level of the bonus, or that the Talent provides a variable amount of DCV? Also, do you have any idea how this would work, or how this couldn't work? Either would help with figuring out an appropriate name, and both would be even better.

"don't hurt her"

At first, Qui Fong wasn't even sure he heard anything. Spoken so softly, the words merely tickled at the edge of his consciousness like some trick of the breeze.

"don't hurt her, please"

But there it came again, and that last word was solid enough to convince Fong that someone was present. Turning around to look for the source of that weak voice, Fong snapped his fingers at a couple of his underlings, who stepped forward to restrain the shopkeeper he had been beating some sense into. The old lady looked helpless enough, but he hadn't reached his high position in the local gang by taking chances.

Even as a hardened gangster, Qui Fong was nearly appalled by the apparition that confronted him from the opening to the alley, silhuoetted against the early morning light. The man standing there looked as if he had been beaten to within an inch of his life, then taken for a few more rounds through the thresher. Yet, underneath all the bruises, cuts that still hadn't had time to heal, and general dirtiness, Fong could make out a face that seemed vaguely familiar. He frowned slightly . . .

"leave us alone" the man timidly requested, and that's when it came to him. This was one of several local figures that he had ordered his lieutenant to have killed last night. When the rest of them found out about this, they would find out that it was not wise to mess with him or his gang. But . . . Fong's frown deepened. Apparently his lieutenant had failed to make sure of the bodies. No wonder this woman hadn't displayed the expected terror and subservience when they confronted her for payment.

"Hey, boss?" asked Big Bob, piercing Fong's reverie. "Can I play with him?" Qui Fong was fairly sure that Bob wasn't the enforcer's real name, but he was a tough-as-nails 'Namerican whose fists could often send even bigger men flying the length of the street, and Fong could always find a use for someone like that. His only weakness was maintenance; Big Bob didn't seem happy unless he got to beat someone up at least every other week, and it had been a while since Fong used him for that.

"Can I, huh?" Big Bob repeated, and Fong realized that his hesitation might look like indecision, or even like he was afraid. 'He who hesitates is lost', as the wise man would say, and indeed, you had to think and act quickly to stay on top. Fong thought quickly, and made up his mind, giving Big Bob the go-ahead, then turning back to the bloodied shopkeeper without even waiting to watch. He didn't bother to worry about what was going on behind him; the worst that could happen, if he left Big Bob unattended too long, was that the enforcer's enthusiasm might get out of hand, in which case the useless interloper (already marked for death) would perish. Besides, it couldn't hurt to make an example out of him twice.

Big Bob closed in on his prey and drew back a giant fist. The guy wasn't even trying to dodge! Big Bob chuckled to himself as he drove his fist forward, planning to just hit him gently at first so he'd go sprawling into the street and attract a larger audience. Big Bob liked people watching him. More importantly, he liked the fear and respect in their eyes. He wanted lots of people to see this.

The man's flesh disintegrated like wet tissue paper beneath the force of Big Bob's blow, barely offering any resistance. Over the man's head, Big Bob watched in amazement as guts and bones flew out into the street, a small fistful of them that, apparently, he'd knocked clear out of the man's body. Big Bob's gaze lowered inexorably to his arm, now buried up to the elbow in the man's body. Big Bob smiled to himself. Somehow, he'd recently gotten mighty powerful. Why, he might even have a shot at taking over the gang now.

He withdrew his hand and marveled at the large, gaping hole in the middle of the man's stomach. Then he frowned, as a thought came to him. "Uhh . . . boss?" he inquired. "I think I killed him already."

"Don't be stupid, you fool." grated a familiar voice just in front of him, and Big Bob felt a chill run down his spine. His eyes were drawn upward just in time to see a small fist coming at his face, and the last words he heard were:

"I'm already dead."

Dao Sing was trodded over his entire life. Frightened of confrontations, Sing prayed constantly for the strength to stand up for himself and his friends, but instead let everyone else push him around. When his friends were struggling in futility, and begging for their lives, he simply laid down and waited to die.

But he didn't. His heart stopped beating, and he wasn't breathing anymore, but he was still there. After a few hours, he got bored and left. Noone stopped him; the gang members had long since departed. When he saw Qui Fong beating up another of his friends, he couldn't just pass by and do nothing.

But when Big Bob slugged him through the chest, Dao Sing discovered something new. He didn't feel like falling over anymore. Now, he feels like pushing back.

Dao Sing, the Zombie, has physical attribute boosts which allow him to soak up damage. But they're bought with the Enhancement "No Visible Power Effect". This means that he can take a hit and look like he's really taken it, to the point of having pieces of his body literally missing, even when he's not very impaired at all (besides the obvious of, you know, not having an arm to swing with or leg to move with anymore). He's also sold down his Knockback Resistance to zero, for his natural attributes only; and his PD, because his flesh is rotting on the inside. In fact, he needs to replace his flesh on an infrequent basis, or he'll literally begin to fall apart; he can raid a graveyard or morgue for this, or improvise with the bodies of his enemies if he needs to. He has a low Regeneration factor that lets him attach body parts without having to sew them on, and should probably take a morgue or graveyard as an Immobile Focus base to ensure a reliable long-term supply of body parts. He can throw a punch harder than any normal human can, but only because he's able to override the living blocks against hurting ourselves; his body is still human, and when he throws a super punch, he's essentially setting his fist against the target hard enough to pulverize his own hand. The result usually destroys his appendage, whether or not it does anything on the other side of the equation, so this is usually a last-ditch effort for him (unless he's been foresightful enough, if disgusting enough, to carry a supply of dead body parts with him). Dao Sing's constant decay also means he isn't smelling too fresh, so he suffers from a Distinctive Feature in the Smell/Taste sense group even if he's been using body parts that didn't die too violently (no obvious marks on them).

[This hero, "Fish" (note that neither his background nor his powers have anything to do with marine life), would be appropriate for a high-powered fantasy campaign, a low-powered modern campaign, or a high-powered (or low-powered) futuristic campaign. You are welcome to take the idea as is or adapt it, for proposal to your GM or offering to your players, though I do ask that, if you do so, you post or send me the character sheet that was used during play. You see, while I have played 5th Edition, I only have the book for 4th, so I cannot be sure that the way I could put things together with that system would be the simplest or cheapest. If you just have ideas for how to implement Fish, please contribute those instead, including whether your implementation would be a "let's make this as uncomplicated as possible" or a "let's see how few points we can use to make this happen" version.]

A long time ago, an extradimensional entity was curious about our reality. So, it extruded a psychic tendril through the interdimensional membrane and manifested a portion of its awareness on Earth. Alas, this innocent explorer soon discovered that between psychic leeches hunting through the astral planes and desperate sorcerers ready to sacrifice anything they could find on the altars of their masters, it simply was not safe to wander in its natural form. Not stumped by this new challenge, the entity simply created a physical shell around its avatar, one suitable for inhabitance, and moved right in. Like the other creatures around it ("humans", they called themselves), this body offered some serious protection for the spirit (or "soul") within, and served as camoflage among humans. For the wounded and hunted avatar, it also provided a safe shelter within which to recuperate, and gather its energies. Unfortunately, the shell could also be damaged, as the entity discovered (to its great dismay) all too soon; the humans gathered in numbers to destroy it, for such trivial omissions as "not accurate anatomy". [Well, it was still *learning* about that world, how could IT be expected to notice such minor details? Besides, more energy was required to create a shell with the finer details all filled in.] At first it simply repaired the damage as it occurred, but this was boring, and somewhat distracting to its greater mission, and after a while the humans were managing to find some disturbingly effective means of destroying its body, so it tried something else. Since its shell was not a "real" body after all, but merely a manifestation of its power in this reality, it adjusted its perception of the body to incorporate some hard-core defensive measures: rocky protusions, spikes, and other natural armor that it had learned of by observing the animals and warriors of this world. While the humans broke their weapons on this improved shell, and ran around trying to improvise a better attack, the avatar (energy annoyingly depleted now) redesigned the internal areas to form a matrix that would amplify its own energy over time, effectively feeding it back what it had lost. By then the humans had regrouped, and were trying to suffocate the avatar with poisonous smoke. Unfortunately for them, the avatar had not yet developed its impersonation of humanity to the point of the human breathing mechanism, so, while they waited outside to see if their latest tactic would have any effect, it regained some energy and projected its awareness beyond the smoke. Seeing that they were all focused on the cloud of smoke, it decided to attempt a deception that might end the encounter without any further harm, and extended its perception into a small copse of still-standing trees nearby. It then modified its awareness to allow that it had *two* bodies; one in the cloud of smoke, and one hidden in the trees. For the new body, it first built the amplification matrix (to accelerate its regaining of energy), then attempted to disguise itself more accurately. It succeeded, but *too* well: when it emerged from the trees, greeting the humans, they reacted with alarm, soon revealing that it had *precisely* imitated one of them. Seeing that the new body's identity was compromised, it abandoned the shell, returning its awareness to the cloud of smoke. Outside, some of the humans investigated the interior of the new body, noting how it fell apart by itself within minutes, while others searched the trees for more surprises, and a few kept their eyes on the smoke. By the time the avatar had recovered enough energy to feel confident about trying again, the humans had dismissed the most recent attempt as a distraction, and were turning their attention back towards the smoke. Scrying out beyond it, the avatar scanned its immediate surroundings for somewhere else to safely construct a new body, but the humans had somehow destroyed the copse by then, and one was still at work taking down every other tree, shrub, or large rock nearby, and the avatar could not stretch its perception beyond that range. Small rocks were thrown into the cloud of smoke (to confirm the continued presence of their target), and the humans poured water on whatever had been producing the smoke, leaving the cloud to gradually dissipate in the wind. Uncomfortable with the prospect of being left defenseless, the avatar nonetheless prepared to fake its own "death" (the humans, it had learned, could rarely survive without their physical shells), regretting (the delay from) the level of resistance it would now have to put up to present a convincing act; the humans were already suspicious about fake bodies, so it would have to make sure that it did not seem suddenly weak compared to its previous toughness, or they would NEVER leave (until they were certain of its demise). In battle, the avatar fought hard, but made sure not to seriously injure any of the humans; if they had previously been unable to harm it alone, they would not find any victory believable unless it came about through their combined attacks, and this meant that the avatar could not afford to reduce the number of attackers. The avatar also refrained from regenerating the damage it took, which the humans seemed to accept (they rejoiced, in fact, at this sign that they had "weakened" the monster). [Meanwhile, the matrix at the center of the avatar remained intact, enabling it to regain even more energy as the outer layers were destroyed.] Finally, as the humans neared the matrix and their blades were scraping at its edges, the avatar instructed its shell to begin collapsing, and detached itself, floating away and watching as the humans plunged their blades into the rapidly disintegrating corpse. To its immense surprise, it was almost immediately attacked by another spirit, one that it had not previously sensed there. The new hunter attempted to latch on and contain it, and the avatar could only flee for a short while before it was caught and held. Helpless and immobile, the avatar turned its attention back to the material world, where another confrontation seemed about to erupt, between the humans it had so recently battled and a new human, or rather an old one, a sorcerer that it recognized from an earlier pursuit. The sorcerer was upset with the humans for having taken so long, and impatient to sacrifice the avatar to its dark lord. The other humans took issue with this, however, objecting that they had been told of a dangerous invader who could be *banished* from their world, and nothing had been said of making their arch-enemy more powerful in the bargain. Frustrated, the sorcerer cursed them for being difficult about it, and said that they could only deny the monster entry into their world for a short time, it would need to be *sent* back by the proper ritual or it would return, and that if they'd finished it off sooner the sorcerer could have retrieved the spirit in plenty of time for the ritual, which needed certain stars to be in alignment. At this the humans seemed divided, some noting that this would explain why the sorcerer was impatient enough to teleport in right away, but others were firmly of the belief that something fishy was going on here and the sorcerer couldn't keep one story straight. The sorcerer pointed out that none of the humans would have known to do anything about the monster but for the sorcerer having informed them about it, and this seemed about to sway the last of the other humans, but suddenly it backfired: one of the brighter humans noted that they wouldn't have *done* anything about the monster if the sorcerer hadn't told them to, and anyway, what had the creature really *done* that was so bad? The tide swiftly turned, many of the other humans remembering and noting how the "monster" hadn't ever been *seen* doing anything wrong, and in fact had been quite gentle during combat, passing up several opportunities to kill one of their team. The sorcerer desperately interjected something about how this only *proved* that they had gotten to it in time, before it grew strong enough to pose a real threat, but his desperation was too transparent and the argument wasn't convincing anyway, so they turned on the sorcerer and a new battle began. This one lasted only for a very short time, though, and the spirit that had been holding the avatar still was quickly called away, to assist. After the sorcerer's departure, the humans turned to the sky and asked the avatar to, if it truly was still there, please manifest, and no, they promised it wouldn't come to harm this time. Considering for a moment the option of simply drifting away and continuing its exploration of this strange world, the avatar remembered that the sorcerer was still out there, and decided that it would be a good idea (at least for the nonce) to stay with these humans, who seemed determined to deny the sorcerer his goals. After many questions (from both sides), the humans had decided that the avatar was essentially harmless, and had persuaded it to try sticking with them for a while, for safety and perhaps some assistance. Before going back, however, they needed to take care of the avatar's inhuman appearance - but they were all very tired, so they suggested an interim solution: make a roughly humanoid shape and cover up the lack of details with a thin, pliable shell of a singular color, aka "costume". For a face, they used some modifications to the sorcerer's, and worked out a cover story about the evil sorcerer's *good* "twin", who had interceded in yet another of the evil sorcerer's many plots.

[This is a good background story for a fantasy campaign. For a modern campaign, the story continues; read on . . . ]

Intrigued by the team's explanations of "good" and "evil", the avatar eventually travelled on, exploring not just the physical traits of this world, but the philosophical developments as well. An eternity later (might have been a few decades, might have been a few centuries; unaging, the avatar cared little for the passing of time, save to occasionally adjust the physical appearance of its outer shell), it was experimenting with the phenomenon known as "sleep" in hopes of experiencing the marvel known as "dreams" when a bunch of humans came in and plunged a wooden stake through its heart. Still new to this "sleep" thing, it remained largely unaware of what was happening in the "real" world, and thought only that it had been hurt within the dream. It activated the regeneration process, and continued dreaming, unaware of the passage of time. Puzzled by the resilience of this vampire, the humans who had burst in on its resting form eventually concluded that either this was some new type of undead they had never encountered before, or their lore was wrong and plunging a stake through its heart was only enough to render it harmless, not to destroy it. After trying numerous solutions such as sunlight, acid, decapitation, and dunking it in a stream, they finally gave up and sealed it inside a coffin (not a problem for the avatar, which only simulated breathing when it was near people, anyway), keeping it a family secret so that noone would ever become curious and interfere with the neutralized vampire, releasing another horror upon that generation. An unknown amount of time later, perhaps after so long that the family's descendants had forgotten what was inside or no longer believed in such things (or after the family died out and their possessions were auctioned off), the coffin was sold to an interested party, some private agency or corporation or even government organization, and experimented on by curious doctors for several decades. There they discovered the same thing that had stymied the humans who originally tried to destroy the "vampire's" corpse; any harm done to the body would immediately begin to heal at a steady rate, until it had closed to the stake again, and any body part separated from the main body would immediately begin to fall apart, until there was no trace left in a few minutes. Some of them theorized that this was because the creature wasn't properly *dead* yet, and was still, quite persistently, trying to heal the damage from the original stake through its heart; from this, they hypothesized that, by removal of the stake, they could return the creature to life and learn much more about it (but thankfully, wiser heads prevailed). They substantiated this theory by implanting other objects into the body, and observing how the flesh would regenerate *around* the foreign material, but never incorporate it, no matter how "compatible" the tissue was. This was combined with the earlier idea by inserting a much more durable steel rod through the center of the chest, and removing the stake, which had come close to disintegrating of age and decay. Psychics were brought in to try to read the mind of the subject, but inevitably went away confused (the dreams of an avatar of an extradimensional entity, especially one that isn't *used to* the idea of dreaming, are not for mortal consumption). And so it continued until the present day, when a team of superheroes (or super-VILLAINS, if your group wouldn't have) tore apart the building in their search for a different objective, and managed to tear the steel rod loose on their way. When the avatar's body finished the regeneration process that it had initiated so long ago, it FINALLY woke up, and noticed right away that a few things were different.

[if "rescued" (inadvertently) by anyone *except* your group, the avatar's first priority was probably to escape, and it can meet up with the team after it emerges, bewildered, into a vastly different world, and wanders around, lost; the "escape" can take place off-stage. If your group *is* there, though, and during play, they can meet up right then as the avatar regains consciousness, looks around, rapidly appraises the situation, and comes to the assistance of the heroes.]

The avatar's powers are all based off of this single, central theme: it is only a projection, into this reality, of the awareness of an extradimensional entity. The power of this entity is such that, simply by adjusting its awareness of what it perceives, it can exert limited *control* over our reality; but this power only extends to the limited sphere of its perception. Within that sphere, it can "scry" (Clairsentience) through solid objects (anything except an Astral Barrier, really), and also manifest physically. [Actually, since the entity's "presence" in our reality is only through its perception, it can't scry through anyone else's area of perception, either; if another spirit is moving through its sphere or someone else is using Clairvoyance to focus on an area entirely within that sphere, the avatar effectively goes blind in that area, and cannot "teleport" (see below) there. This is only for cases where another being's entire range of perception is encompassed by the avatar's sphere, and can be treated as a Limitation on the appropriate powers. Though this could be considered a Psychological Disadvantage because it is based on the entity's perception, it is the "perception IS presence" Law which allowed the entity to tap into our reality in the first place, so it is effectively immutable.] The sphere is measured by the range it can probe outward from, whether from the safety of a physical shell or in its natural, non-material form. It can create more than one physical shell within its range (either by psychic probing or using the natural vision of its shell to extend its perception), but cannot move them about mentally; for that, each must be created with its own means of locomotion. Once it has created a suitable shell for inhabitation, it may withdraw its awareness from the *old* shell, and allow that to collapse, effectively teleporting. This is not traditional teleportation however, and cannot be stopped by the same methods; to this entity, its presence in our reality is *measured* by its perception, and if it perceives an area, it is already there, in the same way that we humans occupy a certain *volume* of three-dimensional space, and our awareness is likewise present all throughout that volume, not limited to a single point. The avatar merely enjoys the advantage of being able to create a physical shell that does not occupy the *entire* area it is aware of, and with some space missing in between as well as out to the perimeter. [Treat as Teleportation with 1 or 2 levels of Armor-Piercing, or perhaps more with the Limitation "not against Special Effect: Astral Barrier" (which would block the spirit's movement and therefore its sphere of awareness).] Its ability to enhance physical attributes works the same way; it perceives itself as having a different body, and then begins to regenerate the difference. Regeneration and "growth" of a new body take place at the same rate; the avatar first constructs the core of its new body, perhaps with 1 Body, and then activates the Regeneration power to slowly (re)build it. [This means that, instead of being able to pay as the construction goes along, and abort partway through if someone attacks the body while it is still vulnerable, the structure of the new body must be decided upon and paid for up front.] On the bright side, the Regeneration power has an effectively infinite duration (remember that it lasted for several decades while the avatar was asleep!), and need not be paid for again until the healing has completed [the body will always heal AROUND foreign material, and when creating a new shell by Teleport, it always leaves such objects behind]. But the avatar may decide to cancel the new body anyway, and pay new costs all over again at a later time, because it cannot animate more than one such body at a time; continuing to focus on the new body would leave the old one defenseless, which is a good reason for leaving the old body in hiding or under the watchful eye of trusted friends while trying to scry/teleport past a wall and infiltrate or sabotage from within. It can also, at any time, discard *all* of its shells and move slowly about past all physical barriers, then reform at will - but it is very reluctant to do so, since this leaves it extremely vulnerable to psychic attack, and it does not have an old body to fall back upon in case it is discovered while still forming the new. [Treat as a Psychological Disadvantage, and note that this is only for voluntary or foreseen dissolution; there are cases where it does not have a choice, as with sudden explosions which incinerate its shell before it can prepare a resistance, and cases where may *want* to fake its death and reform after the assassins have left, but is too terrified of the risk, and decides to compromise its cover instead, improving its physical attributes for a fight.] It can also form a body more precisely, attempting to imitate a specific person (or object, if it wants to give up the ability to *move*), but this - like the improvement to physical attributes - takes more energy [extra Endurance cost] to accomplish and maintain. The core of each shell is a matrix that replenishes the energy of the avatar over time, and, in turn, the energy of the avatar can be used to regenerate the shell. The shell also conceals the spiritual signature of the avatar, and provides it with seriously enhanced defenses against mental attack. [in other words, the spirit builds, enhances, and heals the body, while the body replenishes, hides, and protects the spirit. This is akin to a symbiotic relationship between TWO characters, except that there's only one, and it doesn't suffer if the body is harmed or even destroyed. It *does*, however, then potentially become at risk of harm itself, and additional energy is required to restore the body, which must be intact for some time before the investment of Endurance into creating that body is returned.] The problem is that each new shell (not modifications to an existing shell) comes with a *permanent* expenditure of energy - well, not permanent, but effectively so for most campaigns. It takes *weeks* to restore this vital spark - and if the avatar went crazy with its creation of physical shells, it might find itself with a seriously depleted pool for everyday operations, one that would require months or even years to recover. This effectively limits any over-usage of its powers [or, in a *high-powered* Futuristic campaign, can have already taken place].

Another problem [in the modern campaign] is that this sort of depletion has already *been* happening: while the avatar was imprisoned, psychic surgery was performed upon it multiple times, peeling away layers of its power to graft onto other experiments. As far as the avatar knows, none of the grafts have succeeded - but it *also* knows that it is, literally, a mere fraction of its original self, and it is too weak (compared to its original power) to pierce the dimensional barrier and contact the entity from which it came, to rejoin it. It is, literally, stranded in this dimension. It thinks that the entity (which always retained full awareness, from the data trickling back through its connection to the avatar) may have severed the connection and abandoned its avatar when the experiments began, retaining all that it learned from this world, but it doesn't know because so much has been forgotten. [This is a plot device to keep the avatar from being able to teach people Dimension Lore, and to weaken the Avatar to a playable level.] It has taken the name "Fish" because, although it cannot remember the philosophical theory about all of us being merely the dreams of some fish beneath the sea, it does remember having identified with a fish at some point in time (after all, to it, our entire reality was as malleable as a dream), and so, even though there is nothing aquatic about it, it feels like calling itself "Fish".

[in either campaign, the toughest problem, and one I saved for last, is how to implement the "multiple bodies" of the avatar. Multiform does not work because this is not transformation and because each new body can, at the time of creation, be defined with a different appearance and base physical attributes; Duplication does not work for many reasons, because the avatar cannot control ("run") each body simultaneously, definitely does *not* require physical contact between them to "rejoin", does not split attributes between them (though it does require a few points to stay "invested" within a body to maintain it, preventing those points from being restored to the main reserve, which would *effectively* provide some limit to the resources available for a new body), and does not suffer when one is destroyed. The best way to do this, I think, would be with a Focus; but since the main effect of a Focus is to have the power be useable by other people, and "ability to physically affect the hero" is par for the course, this initially didn't seem to apply. So, I modified the avatar's history to include that bit about the other parts of it having been peeled off; the avatar is a naturally insubstantial spirit, capable of creating a host body suitable for possession *by its own kind* - and some of the parts of itself which were peeled off (forming their own, separate, individual being) are intent on absorbing other fragments of themself, while some may be loyal to the people that were experimenting on it, and be intent on bringing it back; and others may be failed experiments, but on the run and too weak to form another shell for themselves, so on the lookout for one to steal. All of them (and the avatar can never be sure how many there are) are able to inhabit any body that any of them have created, but each body can only store one; if the body is uninhabited (which is very unlikely, since the one that created it will take over at the first moment of availability, before anyone else can jump in; but it *is* possible, by possessing an abandoned body before it disintegrates, though this window is only a few minutes), the attempt automatically succeeds, but if one of them wants to take over while another is still there, it must launch a psychic assault against the heavily fortified shell (not good chances of success). To ensure that the insubstantial form is still very weak (so the avatar is heavily reliant upon its physical shell), it should have an EGO attack *only* against possessed beings, and only to dislodge the entity possessing it. This gives it a useful ability even outside of that very limited use of the power. The attack should not be required for possession, though; the avatar can only possess the shells which it has specifically designed to house it, and restricting the power accordingly would result in too narrow a scope (leave "possession" as a Special Effect; besides, the shell has already been created "suitable for the Avatar", the ability to inhabit it shouldn't be paid for twice). When the second shell is created, the *insubstantial* form of the Avatar can be Teleported (still protected by the old shell, it doesn't endanger itself "crossing" the intervening space) from the old Focus to the new Focus, with, again, several levels of Limited Armor-Piercing (same Limitation on the Teleport *and* the Armor-Piercing: only between own Foci). Use the Teleport with a Trigger, just to be safe, and you shouldn't have to worry about the "existing in multiple locations"; if either body is suddenly destroyed (or the possessing avatar, displaced), all that matters is that the avatar only resides in *one* Focus, now. Since the avatar can't do anything (except regenerate) when two shells are being maintained, a decision will no doubt be rapidly made about which Focus to abandon, and there won't be very much of a window of opportunity for confusing rules questions to arise.]

[An interesting Disadvantage for this character would be Claustrophobia: you can Scry/Teleport past walls, but not *into* small rooms or hallways inside buildings; it reminds you too much of your long incarceration.]

[Notes on the "shell": to permit disruption of the outer (heavily defensive, in the physical sense) layers to take place, without interrupting the restoration of energy in the core; and to better reflect the creation of a new shell; it may be useful to define the whole as *two* Foci, the first being a very weak (Fragile) matrix, and the second being a second (tougher) layer created *around* the matrix - Hole In The Middle does something similar, and might be useable with very little adaptation, since the avatar is basically creating a Focus in an adjacent dimension. The body should be able to Affect Desolidified, if desolidified through a mental/astral Special Effect (+1/4? the body only coexists on the Astral plane, to provide a barrier there, its physical existence is not anything special). The inner core is a Focus that can regenerate the Endurance of the avatar, but only when possessed. It is *highly* recommended to sell the Recovery of the insubstantial avatar down to zero, as a reflection of how it cannot regain strength away from the entity, and set up the inner core with a Continuous Aid to Endurance only. The "permanently expended" energy can be done with Body for the insubstantial avatar; since the physical shell is created by shifting its self-perception to include a physical form as well as the astral, it essentially *is* putting some part of itself into the new shell, and this Body can only be regenerated over the course of weeks by the physical shell. The avatars may have been originally split off via Duplication, but it is only the extradimensional entity itself that could suffer from "losing a part of itself"; to each of the individual avatars, they are aware that they have lost much of what they were, but they cannot "merge" with their other selves nor will they feel a "loss" if another avatar dies, since they were used to the level of power they now have. To be prepared for possession, an outer layer must be added, and until the outer layers are finished, the shell is not stable. Since the shell is created through the avatar's shifting of perception, other avatars cannot wait "on top of" or "in" the new body and wait for the moment when it becomes available; they cannot exist in the presence of another avatar's perception, which was there first (if it wasn't there, it couldn't have begun to create a shell), so they must wait for the previous avatar to vacate (or attempt to drive it out). If the process of "regeneration" (when building a new body) is interrupted, another avatar cannot take over the process; until the new shell is stable, it is not self-sufficient, and an avatar can only create a shell by shifting their perception from "no body, here" to "body, here", which (for lack of an existing, stable shell to move into) requires just as great a shift in their self-perception from "no body, here" as it would have before. A stable shell, basically, provides the avatar with a constant reminder of what it is perceiving itself to be. This is the main reason why an avatar would want to take several minutes creating an initially strong shell instead of quickly making a weak one that could be enhanced later; the shell, as originally established, effectively maintains itself without further concentration, indefinitely, but the enhancements, while strong enough to last for a short while without attention, eventually fade. In high-powered campaigns, this restriction can be dropped, but it is recommended that the costs be adjusted to encourage spending time and Endurance on the initial shell. The higher the physical attributes for a shell, and this includes post-creation enhancements, the greater its mass (the avatar must be able to see the changes it is working on the body). But the avatar is able to control density as well (for example, by adding a defensive layer of crystalline spikes that is, by nature, far denser than normal flesh), so give it the option to Visibly increase Density or give it a different power that boosts its physical attributes even more than usual at the cost of giving the body a Distinctive Feature while the power is in effect. Another consideration is whether to reduce Dexterity while the enhancement powers are in effect. Remember that this is a being which wasn't used to the idea of a body in the first place, and is still learning about them. This would make a good restriction for a high-powered campaign, to discourage a reliance on the temporary enhancements. It makes sense; the initial body would be created stable, and could move well with its natural attributes, but the internal musculature could not be retroactively modified to support the new enhancements. The avatar has Life Support in its natural form (doesn't need to breathe, eat, excrete, or sleep, and it doesn't age), and (not buying it twice) the body doesn't need to either; but it *can* imitate those functions, if the avatar pays additional Endurance to reproduce such finer details as the lungs and other internal organs for breathing, eating, etcetera. The avatar *can* sleep, but doesn't want to (and considering what happened the last time it tried, who can blame it?). Alternately, the avatar *does* need to sleep, but has a terrifically strong Psychological aversion to doing so (resulting in degraded performance from forcing itself to stay awake, until sheer exhaustion forces it to collapse on the spot). Or, it doesn't *need* to sleep, but doing so significantly accelerates the restorative powers of the shell (it has learned to use sleep as humans do). It may be appropriate (at the GM's discretion, of course) to buy non-resistant Mental Damage Reduction, 50%, to reflect the dual nature of the avatar within its protective shell. The shell should definitely come with several levels of Mental Defense, and Invisibility (with no fringes; the avatar animates the outer layers of the shell from its place within the core, and these outer layers cover up the fringes) for the Mental sense group, as well.]